­Artists selected for 3-Phase: a unique development initiative

Larry Achiampong/ Mark Essen/ Nicola Singh

Artists Larry Achiampong, Mark Essen and Nicola Singh have been selected for the second edition of 3-Phase, a unique development initiative led by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, through its gallery programme Jerwood Visual Arts; Eastside Projects, Birmingham and WORKPLACE, Gateshead. The selected artists will produce and present new artwork as it develops through three exhibition moments, taking the form of a group exhibition at Jerwood Visual Arts (8 November – 10 December 2017) and WORKPLACE (28 April – 9 June 2018) along with a solo show for each artist at Eastside Projects (Autumn 2018). The exhibition offers a supported opportunity and critical platform for the artists to engage with 3 individual organisations over an extended period of 18 months to experiment and make ambitious and compelling ideas a reality.

The selected artists, each at pivotal moments in their career, have demonstrated a commitment to challenging and pushing the boundaries of traditional modes of exhibition making. Inherent to their respective proposals is a strong research-base and pertinent social narratives, which surface through sculpture, performance and technology.

Larry Achiampong will present Relic Traveller - a new multi-disciplinary project manifesting in performance, audio, moving image and prose. Taking place across various landscapes and locations, the piece builds upon a postcolonial perspective informed by technology, agency and the body, and narratives of migration.

Mark Essen will present a new body of work exploring values of our archaic economy and offering suggestions of an alternative structure – specifically degrowth – a political, economic and social movement based on ecological economics. By incorporating hydroponics into the work, the artist communicates how urban agriculture may be used as a form of resilience, redressing the balance with nature.

Nicola Singh will continue to find ways of writing via performance and through experiments in pedagogy. She is interested in the organisation of language around the body and in relation to the voice. Her work will take the form of a multifaceted performance, including live readings, experimental music and dialogue with other artists. She will also produce an installation and series of performative objects for her performance, feeling through ideas around exhibiting performance in the context of the gallery.

3-Phase Selection & History

The selection was made by an independent panel comprising: Kelly Best, Artist and 2015 3-Phase exhibitor; Paul Moss, Co-Director, WORKPLACE; Gavin Wade, Director, Eastside Projects and Sarah Williams, Head of Programme, Jerwood Visual Arts. Artists were selected based on the quality and potential of their work and the developmental impact the opportunity is likely to have upon their practice.

3-Phase was first launched in 2015 through the Jerwood Encounters series, working with artists Kelly Best and Georgie Grace. It is an innovative model, which aims to identify artistic potential from across the Midlands, the North, and the rest of the UK, allowing for a UK wide peer group to form. This unique collaboration highlights the benefits of artists and organisations working together as part of a national dialogue; constructing a space of encounter between the thinking of selected artists and supporting arts organisations around the developing bodies of work.

For further details about the Jerwood Visual Arts programme, please visit: www.jerwoodvisualarts.org or follow Jerwood Visual Arts on Twitter and Instagram: @JerwoodJVA.

Larry Achiampong is a London based, British-Ghanian artist. He is influenced by connections between the digital age and communal and personal histories. He completed his BA in Mixed Media Fine Art University of Westminster in 2005, followed by an MA in Sculpture at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. He has since exhibited and performed at venues nationally and internationally including Tate Modern, the British Film Institute, Somerset House, The British Library, Iniva, The Showroom, Fabrica, Dolph Projects, Modern Art Oxford, The Logan Centre (Chicago, USA), ICI/Savvy Contemporary (Berlin, Germany) and The Photography Centre (Lectore, France). www.larryachiampong.co.uk

Mark Essen is a Birmingham based artist. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Birmingham City University (2007) before completing his MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art (2012). He has exhibited at Cass Sculpture Park, Lychee One Gallery, Tate St Ives, Studio Leigh and curated shows at Division of Labour. He has been invited onto residency programmes led by a range arts organisations including Wysing Arts Centre, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Doremifasolasido at Florence Art Centre, South London Infinity Projects. In 2017, he will open Modern Clay, Birmingham – a socially engaged ceramics studio aiming to remove the boundaries between fine and applied arts and crafts. www.markessen.org

Nicola Singh is an artist based in Newcastle. Her practice is rooted in performance and is made in response to contexts of location and place, encounter and dialogue, feelings and chance. Recent projects include a solo show at BALTIC 39, Newcastle and a performance for LUX and LUX Scotland at Glasgow Film Theatre. Nicola has recently completed a practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Northumbria University. www.nicolasingh.co.uk

Project Credit

3-Phase is a partnership between Jerwood Charitable Foundation, WORKPLACE and Eastside Projects.

3-Phase is a new model for working in partnership to support the development of early career artist’s work over a sustained period of time. The three artists will be selected to develop a series of new work with the curatorial assistance of each organisation, which will tour to each partner location. The project was first trialled in 2015 through the Jerwood Encounters series, working with artists Kelly Best and Georgie Grace. www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/exhibitions/jerwood-encounters-3-phase/

Jerwood Visual Arts is a national programme supporting visual arts practice, through which Jerwood Charitable Foundation works with early career artists to commission and present new work. Artist opportunities run throughout the year alongside a programme of related exhibitions, events and commissioned writing, taking place online, in London and across the UK. We advocate for the best possible conditions for the making of art by providing well-resourced opportunities for artists, supported by our staff team and established artists, writers, critics and curators who have a significant national or international profile. www.jerwoodvisualarts.org

Jerwood Charitable Foundation is dedicated to imaginative and responsible revenue funding of the arts, supporting artists to develop and grow at important stages in their careers. The aim of its funding is to allow artists and arts organisations to thrive; to continue to develop their skills, imagination and creativity with integrity. It works across art forms, from dance and theatre to literature, music and the visual arts. www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org

WORKPLACE is a contemporary art gallery founded in Gateshead in the North of England in 2002, and with a gallery in Mayfair, London since 2013. Originally situated far from any of the UK’s major cultural centres, the Gallery has worked intensely over the past decade to access the international artworld. With the objective of working with artists to achieve critical acclaim, WORKPLACE has become an important and integral part of the UK’s cultural landscape through a respected programme of exhibitions, taking part in the leading international art fairs, and long-term partnerships with highly esteemed international artists and galleries. Growing out of an artist-led Northern English art scene, WORKPLACE aims to combine a progressive, countercultural spirit with an independent D.I.Y. attitude, connecting to a new generation of artists, collectors and curators worldwide. WORKPLACE GATESHEAD opened in 2005 at 34 Ellison Street, Gateshead – part of Trinity Square Shopping Centre particularly noted for its iconic Brutalist car park which featured as a key location in the 1971 cult british gangster film ‘Get Carter’ starring Michael Caine. Since the complex was demolished in 2008, WORKPLACE Gateshead has been located at The Old Post Office in Gateshead – a 19th Century Grade 2 listed building built upon the site of the important 18th century British artist, engraver, and naturalist Thomas Bewick’s studio and residence. www.workplacegallery.co.uk

Eastside Projects makes art public. It is an artist-run multiverse, commissioning, producing and presenting experimental art practices and demonstrating ways in which art may be useful as part of society. Eastside Projects provides vital infrastructure, supports best practice and works to expand the role of the artist-run space. Alongside imagining, testing and modeling a free public gallery, it is increasingly engaged in an expanded range of public activities – it devises public art strategies, serve as commissioning agents, produce national public art programmes and create structures to support artists locally, nationally and internationally. It does not make art for the public, it is the public that makes art. Eastside Projects is an artist-run space as public gallery, a Not for Profit Company Limited by Guarantee Reg: 6402007 and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, in partnership with Birmingham City University. Established in 2008. eastsideprojects.org

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Workplace Gallery is a contemporary art gallery run by artists.
Based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs.